So I sat there, and I let him come to me. I tried not to look peeved as he found my cubicle and glared at me.
“I thought you were going to wait for me at home?” he asked his voice low.
It didn’t matter, it still carried, and I was sure the entire office heard it. I blushed.
“I had work to do.”
The man furrowed his brow, actually furrowed it, at me.
“Come on, we’re leaving.” Greyson grabbed my wrist and pulled me up to him, but I pulled back, staying exactly where I was.
“I said I have work to do.”
“And we have things to discuss, or would you rather do it here?”
This was the second time in one day that someone was trying to boss me around, and I was getting sick to death of it. I rolled my eyes and stood up, shaking him off of me.
“I’m sick to death of men bossing me around. You can ask me to leave, you can wait until I’m done, you can do anything else, but you are not going to tell me what to do.”
He reached out for me, but this time he was not nearly as gentle. His pull was rough as he grabbed my arm and tugged me into his own body.
He intentionally, quietly, dipped his head down.
“You need to reassess who in the fuck you think you are talking to. I’m not your family. I’m not like anyone you have ever known. You will come with me, and you will do it now.”
Just the smallest trace of fear, mixed with arousal, flowed through me. I wasn’t finished with this argument, but what he said earlier resonated through me. I didn’t want my peers to be privy to my life outside of school. I was already enough of an outcast as it was.
“Where do you want to talk about this?” he asked as he caressed my curves with his other hand.
“Anywhere but here,” I admitted, my eyes low. I didn’t want to look into his or I might just snap.
“Good.” He purred as he grabbed my backpack and led me down the hallway and out the doors.
When we were finally outside I took in breath after breath of fresh air, gulping them in through my mouth and counting to keep from being angry. To keep from melting away with embarrassment. My cheeks were flushed, and I could feel the anger blazing behind my eyes.
I still didn’t say anything, I just waited until we got into the car and away from the school. I didn’t want anyone I knew to see or hear me like this. It was too much. It was too crazy. I was being pulled off of fucking campus by a mobster with a bad attitude. Practically kidnapped.
What other fucking choice did I have?
“What exactly are you hoping to accomplish?” I asked as I looked him over. That suit, those lips, that hair. Fuck. It was hard to even acknowledge him without being overwhelmed by my attraction to him.
I watched his eyes glanced over me then back at the road.
“I had a visitor today,” he said, his fingers gripping the steering wheel. “My father came by to let me know just what he thought of our relationship.”
“Relationship?” I asked I thought it was just a couple of passion filled nights, but nothing more. Not until my uncle came by.
He just shrugged.
“I had a visitor too,” I admitted, chewing on the inside of my lip.
“A certain uncle?” he asked.
“Yeah. What options do we have?” I asked. I swear his jaw clenched once I said it, his teeth grinding before he dare speak.
Was he seriously considering going through with it? Did he… did he want me? No, that wasn't it. He was upset about the situation. He had to be.
“We don’t have any options, Joanna. As much as I fucking wish it wasn’t the case, it looks like you are stuck with me. At least for now.”
Shit. He really didn’t fucking want me. Tears stung my eyes, and I turned to look out of the window, shifting so that he couldn’t see my face at all, just the back of my head.
I don’t know why I gave a shit. I don’t know why I cared at all.
“When?” I asked, swallowing hard. Fuck, my voice trembled.
“Got a text from my mother, she’s working out a schedule.”
Silence. That was all that filled the fucking car. Nothing but silence.
When we pulled up to his condo, I hesitated, not wanting to get out of the car. “Just-just take me home. I want to go home.”
“Your stuff has been moved in here. You can’t go back there.”
What? It had only been a fucking day. A few hours. How the fuck did he get all my shit out.
His men. My uncle’s men. Ugh.
“Why?” I asked, my brow furrowed.
“It wouldn’t look good to have you up in that shitty rat’s nest of an apartment, not when you could be living with me.” It made sense. I didn’t fucking like it, but it made sense. I needed to look the part for everyone else. It was why I’d always been so glad not to be involved with all of that shit. It was why I wanted nothing to do with my uncle or that side of the family.
Still, I was feeling downright petulant.
“It didn’t matter before,” I challenged, crossing my arms. He got out of the car and opened the door for me.
Fuck. He looked so angry.
“Right, when you were the daughter of a fuck up. When your dad couldn’t even manage to do simple jobs, so rather than kill him they threw him away, and you along with it.” His brutal honesty stung. It fucking hurt. I didn’t know why the fuck he said it, but I snapped.
“I don’t know why you think you have the right to fucking say nasty shit to me. It’s not like I want to be here. It’s not like I’m enjoying this.”
The man grabbed me and pulled me out of the fucking car, dragging my body across his. “That’s not what it seemed like last night,” he caressed the curve of my breast right there in public, his hand hard as he grabbed it and gave it a painful squeeze.
The kind that made me squeeze my thighs together. He saw me shift, saw me squeeze my knees together and grinned. “Is that getting a reaction out of you?” he asked as he dipped his hand into my skirt and panties, cupping me as he slipped a finger into my slit. Yeah, I was wet as hell. And I was totally scandalized. He was doing this in public!
“Greyson,” I protested, but it fell on deaf ears, he just slid his finger in and out of me. He closed the car door and pinned me up against it.
“Tell me you don’t want this, just a little bit. Tell me you aren’t wet as fuck,” he breathed into my ear.
I couldn’t tell him those things, I couldn’t even utter them. The truth of the matter was, it would be nothing but lies.
So I just swallowed my tongue and avoided his gaze.
“In the car or in the Condo. Choose, now,” he whispered it into my ear and then kissed my lobe, his tongue flicking it at the very end.
“Condo,” I answered, letting out a long breath. “Condo.”
Fuck. I couldn’t resist him. There was nothing I could do to resist him, even if I wanted to. I hated this arrangement, hated that he was forced to be with me, that a man like him would be trapped, but there was nothing I could do about that. All I could do was enjoy exactly what I was experiencing.
He was so fucking strong, the way he pulled me up the stairs and to the elevators. But it didn’t wait that long. We were kissing before I knew it, his hands on my neck, in my hair, pulling ever so slightly; my body pressed hard up against him. We were in the room before I realized it, and he was staring at me.
Those wolf-like eyes on me. He wanted something from me.
“Take off your top,” he commanded. “I want to watch you undress.” He pushed me towards the center of the room and grinned at me. “Now, baby.”
“Is this what you want?” I asked as I pulled my shirt off and unhooked my bra. I dropped it onto the floor and stepped towards him.
“Oh, no.” His eyes flashed. “It is not all that I wanted. Not at all.”
“Did you think it was really going to be so easy? That I would just forget about you walking out when I asked you to stay?” I could see the excitement in his eyes and I knew he was looking for an excuse for what came next.
“Yes, but it wasn’t an order,” I said, my voice full of snark. I was feeling awfully bold for a half naked woman with a hand at her throat. “I don’t have to do as you ask.”
He wasn’t going to choke me. Kiss me, yes, but not choke me.
I had to believe that.
“Oh, I think we both know that you do. If not as my woman, then as my employee, after all.” He was too lost in his lust to realize what he’d just said.
My breasts heaved as I looked him in the eyes. “Is this all this is to you, nothing more than just an exchange of services?” I questioned.
Fuck, he didn’t like that. He released his grip on me.
“Take off your skirt and panties.” Those dark eyes would tolerate no argument, so I did as I was told. “Good, now turn around and put your hands against the wall.”
It wasn’t a wall it was a window. A large, wall-like window. Anyone could see me from here. Hell, some of the neighbors didn’t even need to use binoculars.
It was like he wanted it that way.
“Everyone will know you belong to me, Joanna. Do you understand?” He said slowly. “You belong to me.”
No one owns me. No one. I wanted to say that, I wanted to be defiant. But I didn’t. I just stood there, my ass sticking out my hands against the wall, both of my legs spread.
It was so humiliating.